The Laurel Community Center Games Club has sessions every Thursday starting at 6 PM, lasting until 9 PM. The Community Center is located at 7901 Cypress Street, Laurel MD 20707. Phone: (301)-497-0300. The Laurel Community Center Games Club is affiliated with the Games Club of Maryland ("GCOM"), which has over 30 locations in Maryland and the surrounding states and the District of Columbia.

Contributors

Sunday, June 29, 2014

We had a good group of eight for this week's session. Ben H, Mike, Tim, Patrick, Neville and myself were joined by first-time attendee Rich, along with Matt (back for his third session). Games played included Splendor, Agricola, Trains and Stations, Coyote and Money. Some details follow.

Splendor was the opener, turned out to be a three-player, won by Mike (17). Ben, who gave up his seat to Rich to learn Agricola, had 12. I was second with 13.

The Agricola game, which took the rest of the session, was won by Tim (39), ahead of Ben (33), Patrick (30) and Matt (19). Good result for Ben in his first game against a couple of experienced players.

The rest of us played some shorter games:
Trains and Stations, won by Mike (44) ahead of John (35), Neville (34) and Rich (15).
Coyote, came down to a final showdown between John and Rich. I had 2 coyotes by then, Rich had won, but I managed to win three in a row to pull off the win. Neville and Mike were knocked out early.
We played a couple of hands of Money, which Mike had brought again. Scores seemed a bit higher than in the prior game.
Hand 1: Mike 610 Rich 500 John 480 Neville 410
Hand 2: John 760 Mike 700 Neville 380 Rich 140

A reminder that the deadline for signing up for the GCOM Family Picnic is coming up soon. The event is FREE to all GCOM members but just $10 to anyone else, but YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER in ADVANCE. Check out the GCOM website at gamesclubofmd.org and click on "Family Picnic" for details.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

We had an even dozen for tonight's session: Patrick, Tim, Mike, Ben A, Neville, Matt, Rembert, Ben H, Evan, Rouslan, Alex and myself. We played the following games: Agricola, Splendor (played four times), Kemet, Settlers of Catan and Money.

During the first part of the session, one group split off to play Agricola while two games of Splendor broke out. The Agricola game was won by Evan (41) ahead of Tim (36), Ben A (35) and Patrick (29). Splendor game #1 was a win for Mike (16) ahed of Neville (13), Matt (10) and yours truly (9) last. Splendor game #2 began as a two-player when Rouslan joined late. Winner was Ben H (17) with Rembert (10) second while Rouslan (playing with an obvious handicap) was a distant third with just 1 point.

We then mixed up the groups for the next round of games, with the Agricola game still going on. Neville, Rembert and I played Kemet, which Rouslan had brought and got played for the second week in a row. This game consumed the rest of the session time and we came close to finishing with the goal of reaching 8 points. Rouslan had got to 8 but got knocked down one when Neville successfully attacked one of his Pyramid VP locations, so we picked it up with Rouslan and I at 7, Neville and Rembert at 4.

Settlers turned out to be a very quick three-player, as Ben H won once again, steamrolling Matt and Mike. Scores were Ben H 10, Matt 7, Mike 4. By this time Alex had arrived, and another Splendor game broke out, this being the closet of the four played, three points separating the entire field. Scores were Mike 15, Alex and Matt 13, Ben H 12.

Finally, two more games to report. Mike brought Money and taught the game to Ben H and Alex. Scores were Mike 900, Ben H 680, Alex 250. Finally, three of the four Agricola players wrapped up with a fourth game of Splendor. Result? Another win for Evan: Evan (18), Patrick (7), Tim (3). I believe Evan has yet to lose in his two times at the club.

Monday, June 16, 2014

The good weather and good attendance trend continued, as we had 10 show for this week's session: Ben A and Amy, Alex, Matt (first time attendee), Tim, Neville, Rembert, Rouslan, Ben H and myself. A total of five games were played: Village, Kemet, Settlers of Catan, Vegas Showdown and Dream Factory (originally known as Traumfabrik).

Village was a four-player, won by Ben A (48) followed by Alex (45), Amy (42) and Tim (33). This same group then played Vegas Showdown, which turned out to be a runaway win for Alex. Scores of the Vegas Showdown game were Alex 82, Tim 57, Ben A 51, Amy 47. I believe it was the first time play for both Ben and Amy, but everyone had played Village before.

Four of us played Settlers. A big win for the other Ben, Ben H, although the game swung back and forth as Rembert grabbed longest Road and I tried to do my best after getting hemmed in with limited spots for new settlements. Final scores were Ben H 10, Rembert 8, John 7, Matt 6. The four of us then played Dream Factory. I was the teacher as none of the other three had played before, and I managed to come away with the win: John 88, Rembert 79, Ben H 75, Matt 59.

Finally, Rouslan and Neville played a game that Rouslan had brought, Kemet, that had been discussed in prior weeks. I have a result of 9 for Rouslan to 5 for Neville, not sure if that represents a complete game or not.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Had a really good session this week with 11 gamers attending (including four first-timers). Six different games were played, three of them twice, as we had three tables going for just about the entire session.

Attendance list: Mike, Jack, Doug, Rouslan, Tim, Neville and myself plus four newcomers: Ben (who shall henceforth be known as Ben H or Ben Harold to distinguish him from the other Ben, Ben A); Evan, and Mike (whom we shall refer to as Mike J) and Melanie.

Ticket to Ride-Asia teams matched the team of Jack and Ben versus Doug and myself. After some initial struggles, Doug and I managed to complete some high scoring tickets which gave us the win by a wide margin (we had more total points that Jack and Ben before counting points for track on the board). Ben wanted an immediate rematch, with the same teammates, so we played again, and this time Jack and Ben were the winners, estimated score of 200 to 161 for Doug and me.

Meanwhile, Evan won a three-player Puerto Rico, defeating Tim and Mike. Scores were Evan 46, Tim 42, Mike 39. Mike's comment on the game was he should not have bought the Factory. Rumor has it that Evan is a bit of a Puerto Rico shark, so we'll have to monitor future games.

While the Ticket to Ride team battle extended into the second hour of the session, everyone else joined in for a game of 7 Wonders. Rouslan came out on top in a close game. Scores: Rouslan 56 Evan 54 Neville 53 Mike J. 49 Mike B. 46 Tim 44

The third table played Tobago, which ended in a tie: 38 each for Mike J and Rouslan, 36 for Neville and 30 for Melanie.

Next round of games saw everyone wanted to play Splendor and, fortunately, someone other than me had brought a copy, so there were two games. In one of these, Evan continued his winning ways. Scores were Evan 17, Mike 13, Tim 11. The other game was closer, won by Jack: Jack 15, Doug 14, Ben H 10.

Meanwhile, I joined Rouslan and Neville to learn a game that Neville had brought, called Gravwell. It was a race game featuring card draftring, simultaneous card play but you had to deal with the pull of gravity that had a definite "drag"on being out in front. First game ended with Rouslan getting to the end of the track, Neville and I were far back. The second game we had to pick up at 9 PM, with Neville slightly ahead.

Excited to have so many new people, hopefully we can keep it up with another big turnout next week!